Quick Hits: Clemens, Plouffe, Drew, Ortiz

On this date 20 years ago the Mets sent right-hander David Cone to the Blue Jays for 24-year-old second baseman Jeff Kent. Cone helped Toronto win the first of two consecutive World Series titles and Kent went on to become a borderline Hall of Famer (though he spent his most productive seasons in San Francisco). Here are today’s links as we await the next major trade of the 2012 season…

Alan Blondin of the Houston Chronicle writes that Roger Clemens called his recent performance for the Sugar Land Skeeters a favor to Skeeters manager Gary Gaetti. Clemens told Blondin he doesn't have plans for further pitching performances, but cautioned, "That could change in a couple days."

Twins general manager Terry Ryan feels that now is the time for Trevor Plouffe to step up and establish himself as the team's long-term answer at third base, writes Phil Mackey of 1500 ESPN. Mackey quotes Ryan as saying Plouffe "[has] the rest of the year" to show the Twins that third base isn't a position they need to address.

David Ortiz, a free agent this offseason, wants to re-sign with the Red Sox, according to Alex Speier of WEEI.com. “This is what I know and this is something I want to be part of,” Ortiz said.

The Athletics and Astros have improved their farm systems considerably in the last year, Jim Callis of Baseball America writes in this week’s edition of Ask BA.

The Blue Jays should have publicly told the Red Sox that manager John Farrell is off-limits long ago, Shi Davidi writes at Sportsnet.ca. The Blue Jays have failed to limit speculation about the possibility of Farrell returning to Boston, Davidi writes. Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos has said the Blue Jays won’t announce an extension with Farrell, even if the sides agree to one.

…that isn’t injured all at once (Bautista, Lawrie, Arencibia, Escobar, most recently Rasmus and Morrow) or underperforming (Romero, Escobar, Johnson, Alvarez). In what was originally supposed to be a promising year turned into disaster in a mere 2 and a half months. It’s not solely Farrell’s fault he’s out there working with a AAA lineup right now.

I actually haven’t been really clear why people have been thinking that the Dodgers trade meant Ortiz would be a guaranteed goner. They don’t have to worry about paying his salary and frankly it makes him the uncontested team leader. Also if there’s a single bulletproof player on the Red Sox at the moment, it’s Big Papi.

I’d be very pleased to see him back and honestly very happy if he retires wearing the Red Sox uniform.

Given the choice of people that might make a good manager is the son of a great college coach at the Univ. of Maine and former Yankee executive Jack Butterfield–currently a coach with the Jays, Brian Butterfield.
I like Farrell but I think Butterfield has the makings of a fine manager for the Sox. I just wouldn’t pay the compensation to get Farrell.

Ortiz is not worth 2/$25m…but if the Sox don’t mind overpaying by a year and a few million then they can do whatever.

I would let him test the open market. If he can get a multi year deal from someone, let him walk and take the draft pick. If he can’t get a deal then the Red Sox get him cheap. It’s a win/win.

I like Ortiz but I’d like to see some of the position players start rotating through the DH spot instead of just getting the night off, especially as younger guys start cracking the lineup and need major league at bats.

Ok, sure you have the obvious: unhappy with the ownership and the media. However anytime the media said anything bad about Ortiz this year the first response from a majority of Red Sox fans was “back off Ortiz.” As for the ownership issue, don’t you think that could be mitigated by no other team would dare offer a DH a salary exceeding $10M?

Add to that, I think there’s a single point that people forget regarding Red Sox fans and Ortiz. Ortiz is a statuesque god in Boston, he isn’t in every other city.

Ortiz is a charismatic guy who’s been with the team since 2003, been one of the most vocal players with the press, and is considered to be the most important Red Sox leader over the last several years who’s not named Jason Varitek.

When Manny left Ortiz had that year and a half that he went into his shell and didn’t talk to the media as much (also didn’t help that was when he was hitting poorly at the beginning of the years and every question he got was if he was done) at this point Pedy stepped up to a leadership role as far as the media is concerned, as he was the media face of the organization